enRoute's 2012 Best New Restaurants in Canada

Air Canada’s enRoute magazine announce their pick of best new restaurants in Canada in the November issue of the inflight magazine. Canada and Toronto got the lion’s share of picks, with six out of 10 spots on the list. The reviewer, Sarah Musgrave, the casual dining critic for the Montreal Gazette, dined out for a month, consumed 250 dishes. Here’s the criteria for the picks, from the enRoute press release: “Air Canada’s enRoute magazine looks for new restaurants that advance the Canadian culinary identity; they are places where the overall dining experience will have a lasting and significant impact on our restaurant culture.”

In the same issue of enRoute, Musgrave plucks the year’s restaurant trends, “from the honky-tonk to haute hinterland to taco truck. Foraged goods, made-from-scratch vermouth, family style meals, and wild ingredients like sea buckthorn in dessserts threaded through 2012 menus.

On Nov. 1, the enRoute Eats App will be available, listing the 2011 and 2012 Top 10 new Canadian restaurants.

The best new 2012 enRoute restaurants, with review comments, are:

1. Edulis (Toronto) takes top honours. “The make-it-look-easy restaurant of the year. Refreshingly more show than tell, it does barn to table without the fuss. It’s above all not self-conscious, nor should you be when you come back for more.” 2. Model Milk (Calgary). “(Chef) Justin Leboe is taking his cooking down home without dumbing it down…perfectly tender southern-fried rabbit, the golden crust stung by hot pepper vinegar, sits on ethereally creamy grits.” 3. Ursa (Toronto). “…rootsy and possibly radical, but with more than a touch of glam. A cuisine that is health-oriented and highly original, but not preachy. We’ll drink to that.” 4. Acadia (Toronto). “Encompassing Lowcountry and Acadian cuisines…the menu re-interprets with technical aplomb, the messy jumble of rustic French and southern coastal influences.” 5. Pastaga (Montreal). “Pastaga shows off chef Martin Juneau’s kooky but tightly controlled creativity…bison smoked meat sandwich with homemade rye, chopped liver ‘à la juive,’ marinated salmon and salmon jerky shavings…” 6. Hopgood’s Foodliner (Toronto). “…Geoff Hopgood presents East Coast comfort food with intimacy and intelligence. His nouveau Scotian cuisine is equal parts nostalgia and now.” 7. Grand Electric (Toronto). “…doing for Mexican what the izakaya scene did for Japanese. It’s exciting, fun, affordable, quality late-night food to get drunk by.” 8. Keriwa Cafe (Toronto). “Keriwa’s seasonal-minded menu draws First Nations techniques and unspoiled tastes of the Canadian landscape into an urban context…Canadian head-to-tail cooking with a history: a real dream catcher.” 9. Borgo (Calgary). “…a workhorse of a restaurant. It hustles from day to dark with the clatter of espresso cups and shared plates of the cuisine’s greatest hits – golden arancini, imported salumi, crudi and cicchetti….” 10. Nora Gray (Montreal). “Emma Cardarelli honed her command of red sauce at Liverpool House… the parade of direct, unfussy, seasonally motivated plates comes at you nonna style.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Market to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.